Oval punches

[Sheilajeanne]

Nice bit of country, Frodo! 

Here's what a traffic jam looks like in my neck of the woods - yours too, I'm sure!

 

 

Ummm...what was the topic again?? 

Edited August 15, 2020 by Sheilajeanne

[Spyros]

2 hours ago, Sheilajeanne said:

Yes, it gets cheaper. And you also need to have a larger lot, to make room for your septic system. I'm in a small town only an hour from Toronto, and there is no sewage system here, though we do have municipal water.

The real estate sales slowed dramatically during the lockdown, but now that it's eased, sales in the Toronto area are breaking records. Seems that prices went down during the lockdown, which has fueled the buying frenzy. Toronto real estate prices were insane before, and I can guarantee they will soon get back to their previous level with the way things are going.

I am so glad to be living in a small town that surrounded by mostly farms and patches of forest.

Bucks Raptors ECF, who ya got?

[Sheilajeanne]

Huh?  I know the Raptors are Toronto's basketball team, and the Bucks are a baseball team out of Milwaukee, but what the heck is ECF? 

I have been known to root for the Toronto Argonauts (CFL football) but don't have much interest in baseball (Blue Jays).

As for hockey, I was a Maple Leaf fan in the 60's and 70's, but when your team goes more than 50 years without winning the Cup, well, your interest kind of fades. My all--time favourite Leaf will always be Johnny Bower. He lived just the next street over from us when I was in High School, and he was SUCH a nice man! My dad taught his daughter, Cindy, in Grade 6.

I do billet hockey players for a local Junior 'A' team, though. It's ...interesting... to see the lack of 'adulting' skills in these 18 to 20 year old kids. 

Edited August 15, 2020 by Sheilajeanne

[Spyros]

28 minutes ago, Sheilajeanne said:

Huh?  I know the Raptors are Toronto's basketball team, and the Bucks are a baseball team out of Milwaukee, but what the heck is ECF? 

I have been known to root for the Toronto Argonauts (CFL football) but don't have much interest in baseball (Blue Jays).

As for hockey, I was a Maple Leaf fan in the 60's and 70's, but when your team goes more than 50 years without winning the Cup, well, your interest kind of fades. My all--time favourite Leaf will always be Johnny Bower. He lived just the next street over from us when I was in High School, and he was SUCH a nice man! My dad taught his daughter, Cindy, in Grade 6.

I do billet hockey players for a local Junior 'A' team, though. It's ...interesting... to see the lack of 'adulting' skills in these 18 to 20 year old kids. 

Αhhh ok you're not a fan, I thought everyone over there would be after the Raps won it all last year.   ECF= eastern conference finals, they beat the Milwaukee Bucks last year and it's shaping up to be the same pair again this year, only the Raps have lost their best player whose contract expired and opted to go home to LA.   Playoffs start next week

Edited August 15, 2020 by Spyros

[fredk]

6 hours ago, Sheilajeanne said:

Well, most of Europe doesn't need room to store snowmobiles! 

I've noticed, the farther north you go in Canada, the larger the garages get. You need room for your SUV, snowmobile, ATV, canoe, riding mower and patio set.

About 6 years ago we had a very heavy snowfall. About 5ft in rural areas, 3 ft in cities. Local airport spent £150,000 on a snow plough/blower for the runways. By the time they got it the snow was gone. The airport has not needed it since. This past winter we had 1 inch of snow for all of 36 hours.

That picture of a 'traffic jam'; if that was here, the double line would be white and all those drivers would get a fine for crossing them

Here is my letter aligning frame; 

I posted up about this some time ago, here

https://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/88027-some-ideas-for-your-letter-stamping/?tab=comments#comment-601367

12 hours ago, Sheilajeanne said:

Nearly every time I go to the local dump, I see bicycles people have thrown away for scrap metal. It makes me very sad.

There is a man in the nearest large town that fixes up and sells old bikes for a living. I wish there were more people who did that!

Here, there was a man who did that. No longer. Don't know what happened to him. But through him a lot of less-well off people could buy bikes for themselves and children. Now you can't touch a basic bike for less than £300

[chuck123wapati]

5 hours ago, fredk said:

 

Here, there was a man who did that. No longer. Don't know what happened to him. But through him a lot of less-well off people could buy bikes for themselves and children. Now you can't touch a basic bike for less than £300

I tried setting up a bike shop after i retired but in this part of the US there is little interest. To cold to ride for 6months of the year and most of the bikes now are so cheaply made and disposable that its just not worth it for people to pay to have them repaired. You can go to commie mart and buy a bike cheaper than you can replace the innertubes for.  Very sad thing they, big business, have taught our young folk that the only way to live is to buy brand new and then throw it away instead of keeping it repaired.  Why i love my MGB i can still buy every part for it and fix it myself.

Back on topic Why not just make a template out of leather shaped just like a belt with the holes and end cut to shape, lay it down on your belt blank and mark the holes trim the end and your done. 

Edited August 15, 2020 by chuck123wapati

[Sheilajeanne]

Chuck, yeah, that's sad we've become a throwaway society. Fortunately, I've got enough skills to be able to fix most things on a bike myself. Not sure I'd want to tackle a tire, though - the are tricky, and it's so easy to puncture the innertube when putting it back on the rim!

 

Quote

Back on topic Why not just make a template out of leather shaped just like a belt with the holes and end cut to shape, lay it down on your belt blank and mark the holes trim the end and your done. 

EXACTLY what I do!

[Sheilajeanne]

Fred, they're not very strict about fining people who cross the line here, especially if it's due to a slow moving vehicle. I am sure if you were speeding and passing dangerously, it would be a different story.

I have a letter aligning frame I bought from Tandy, but have never found much use for it. It's too fiddly - even a slight touch can knock it out of alignment!  I prefer to use a leather marking pen for positioning the letters.

[Spyros]

8 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

I tried setting up a bike shop after i retired but in this part of the US there is little interest. To cold to ride for 6months of the year and most of the bikes now are so cheaply made and disposable that its just not worth it for people to pay to have them repaired. You can go to commie mart and buy a bike cheaper than you can replace the innertubes for.  Very sad thing they, big business, have taught our young folk that the only way to live is to buy brand new and then throw it away instead of keeping it repaired.  Why i love my MGB i can still buy every part for it and fix it myself.

I don't know, there's a lot of expensive bikes out there... I have an e-bike and a chromoly gravel bike and I need my local bike shop at least once a year, mostly because I can't be bothered servicing disk brakes.   There's also a lot of specialised work out there, i was trying to put a rigid fork on a bike that was meant for a suspension fork, which is not easy because you're messing with the geometry of the bike, and I had to go to the other side of the city to find a bike shop that would take the job.   Everybody else said no, they didn't want it. 

And although what you're saying is true, the market has definitely changed and people shop cheap bikes online etc, a lot of bike shops failed because they just dont know how to run a business.  Most of them are bike enthusiasts themselves, and get sucked into doing all the interesting work for hours, and in the end they forget what the customer actually wanted.   Looking at them as a customer, most of them are just terrible, but I keep going back because they have the same love for bicycles as me, I enjoy the chat etc.   

The bike shops that had solid customer service and knew how to run a business survived and are still doing well.

Edited August 15, 2020 by Spyros

[chuck123wapati]

14 minutes ago, Spyros said:

I don't know, there's a lot of expensive bikes out there... I have an e-bike and a chromoly gravel bike and I need my local bike shop at least once a year, mostly because I can't be bothered servicing disk brakes.   There's also a lot of specialised work out there, i was trying to put a rigid fork on a bike that was meant for a suspension fork, which is not easy because you're messing with the geometry of the bike, and I had to go to the other side of the city to find a bike shop that would take the job.   Everybody else said no, they didn't want it. 

And although what you're saying is true, the market has definitely changed and people shop cheap bikes online etc, a lot of bike shops failed because they just dont know how to run a business.  Most of them are bike enthusiasts themselves, and get sucked into doing all the interesting work for hours, and in the end they forget what the customer actually wanted.   Looking at them as a customer, most of them are just terrible, but I keep going back because they have the same love for bicycles as me, I enjoy the chat etc.   

The bike shops that had solid customer service and knew how to run a business survived and are still doing well.

Maybe alot of expensive bikes out there but not out here lol.  My town is only about 7000 so just not enough high end business. If people seeing you riding a bike here they think you lost your drivers license lol. Front fork easy peasy, first off clamp your suspension fork so it doesn't move up or down  then adjust the length until you get the feel you want, the bike doesn't know geometry so it doesn't care a bit lol. Then get rigid forks that length.